Arsene Wenger Steps Down: Tributes And Testimonials Pour In From Football’s Great And Good (And Neil Warnock)

The football world was rendered momentarily aghast on Friday morning when word came down from the top that Arsene Wenger is to give up the Arsenal reigns come the end of the season after 22 years in charge.

It wasn’t long before social media was awash with tributes and testimonials to the French doyen, which made a nice change from the usual steady stream of opprobrium that has been funnelled his way for the past few years.

Arsenal themselves were the first to kick things off, and did so by reminding Wenger just how terribly he has aged in the job…

I will always see you as my footballing father where under your guidance I had the chance to grow as a man and a player, i'm forever thankful for that and wish you all the very best for the next chapter in your life! #ThanksArsene#TheBoss 2/2 pic.twitter.com/ekhFNfExvN

Arsene Wenger built the best teams that I played against in English Football .The 98 team was Amazing.The biggest compliment is that he played football that made us change the way we played against them. He now deserves the most incredible send off from all in the coming weeks.

A perfect time to recognise and praise the massive impact that Arsène Wenger had on English football culture. A true pioneer who raised the bar for all of us who played against him and his teams. @Arsenal

Henry Winter went off on one recalling the first time he ever laid eyes on his lanky Gallic paramour…

David Dein invited 9 of us correspondents into Highbury board-room to meet #Wenger in 96. Arsene spoke for 50 mins, and we were spellbound by his attacking philosophy, belief in nutrition (broccoli!) & obsession with #afc as a community club. A visionary had arrived. 1/10

I remember talking to Sol Campbell in Colney canteen & he demonstrated how Wenger insisted if players were to drink tea or coffee (milk bad), and if you had to have sugar, there was a Wenger-approved technique of stirring it in to make all the granules absorb. Perfectionist 2/10

I admired his work always, it was always brilliant. Since I’ve been in England it’s a little bit different because now we have to challenge them, of course, but from Germany he was always a big, big role model in that job.

Pep Guardiola came next:

The Premier League is the Premier League because of his personality and what he has done. It was a pleasure to compete against him”

Swiftly followed by his English equivalent, one Neil Warnock:

He’s the man who changed the whole face of the game. We owe him so much, yet have given him so much stick.

In a way I’m glad he’s going, I wouldn’t want to see him get any more vitriol than he’s had.

Paul Merson implored Arsenal to do the right thing and give their departing manager the kind of permanent tribute he so richly deserves:

They (Arsenal) shop drop the ‘Emirates’ bit – they don’t need the money – and name it the Arsene Wenger Stadium.

That’s his stadium. He built it. He made that stadium. Even if they call it the ‘Emirates Arsene Wenger Stadium’, he deserves to be on that.

If Wenger’s endowment to the game can be boiled down to just the one overarching achievement, it must be that he got Merse to speak sense for the first time in his media career.